The use of thermos bottles for housing aqueous solutions such as coffee or beverages is an accomplished fact. The use of a cap that doubles as a cup is a rare commodity. The U.S. Pat. No. 2,954,888 issued Oct. 4, 1980 to C. Bramming identifies a plastic jacketed vacuum bottle for improved construction to house disposable fluids and includes a cap of unspecified design. In fact, Bramming states in lines 11-13 of column 2 "Since the stopper and cap form no part of the present invention, it will suffice to state that these elements may be conventional in structure." Further, after a patent search with a study of the conventional structure of various vacuum and thermos bottle caps, it has been determined that the state of the art is very limited. Likewise, the utility of such caps in terms of functional use thereof is also very limited, except for a variety of conceptual designs in beverage container lids for control of spillage of liquids housed in the cups.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,691 issued Mar. 16, 1982 to E. Hament shows a rather complicated cup lid fitting the lip thereof and provided with a liquid dispensing opening in a second of the circular flanges, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,660 issued Aug. 15, 1978 to P. Boyle ralates to a splash proof drink-through beverage container lid which is even more complicated in the design and operation thereof.
Since no prior art caps offer improvements found in the present invention which includes a cap that doubles as a cup and is capable to function with a novel lid so as to allow liquid dispensing therefrom without spillage, the objectives become quite apparent, indeed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simple new thermos bottle cap that doubles as a cup.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide thermos bottle cup which also includes a novel lid for splash protection and for liquid dispensing via dual lid opening incorporated therein.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a simple cup retainer for control of cup sliding, in particular during traveling.
A final object of the present invention is to provide novel means for cap utilization in a plurality of functions be it a closure means for thermos bottles or a stationary or portable cup that contains a special lid for control of liquid spillage and for liquid withdrawal therefrom when in transit, all of which can be done by congregation of best features from prior art elements structured for new and synergistic result.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following specification and drawings identifying certain typical embodiments thereof.